Thank you Judge Judy but this isn't my first time at the rodeo.

I've taken on Air Canada, Aeroplan and TAP Air Portugal in small claims court and I'm 3-0 ;)

Star Alliance availability with UA miles is actually pretty good, compared to most other programs. Not my favorite airline in the world, but availability in and of itself isn't usually the issue for me. I've found it quite a bit better than AA when it comes to redeeming multiple seats together, long-haul across the alliance, without unnecessary garbage fees.

If you're solely talking quality and are specifically after SQ F, then native SQ miles are probably better.

AS is a mixed bag. There are some sweet spots in the program, and some areas of very poor availability. There's a lot of bang for your buck there if you have tons of flexibility, but converting to AS in hopes of a specific award on a specific date might leave you disappointed.

I am still not convinced we're getting maxed point refunds (Dan's scenario 2), though I will say that Lurker's continued hold to "equivalent points" plus Marriott's timeline is making me more hopeful.

Honestly, as much as I like having 3 7-day stays sometime next year, having half a million Marriott points would make me much happier.

I want to order a TP, but am getting put on infinite hold. That's after finding out the hard way not to let Marriott's inane system route me to a reservations associate. I blew an hour last night, then gave up and have currently been on hold for 15 minutes with no end in sight. Is there a better number to call than 1-800-450-4442?

try the marriott vacations number. 1-866-814-6901

Will do. I'm a MVC owner (inherited), and want to order a 5-nighter anyway, so that makes sense!

Seems I'm in the same queue. Except this time I don't know if I'm headed to reservations or MR. This is very frustrating.

Tried the Gold number, same queue and still not certain I've been routed to MR not reservations. Reservations voice recognition bot refuses any requests like Agent or Customer Support, then eventually relents and send you to the queue to die. Saying Book Travel Package gets you reservations, and they won't/can't help.

I still very much believe you will end up with three 7-day certificates.

Maxed point refunds would be crazy-generous on Marriott's part.
Forced forfeiture at the "penalty" rate (45k) would be a world-class d*ck move beyond almost anything we've ever seen a loyalty program do. I trust Marriott enough to rule this out.
That leaves a category conversion, which seems reasonable given that the TP's *do* fall into the category of "certificates with a pre-defined category".

The details that remain are what to do when there isn't an identical "new" category level (e.g., old Category 6) and what to do with expiration dates and post-Aug 1 cancellations of certs that were attached on August 1. These are areas where members might get a *little* one-time bonus (in value or expiration date) to save Marriott some coding.

I would be surprised if very many of the people who bought travel packages know that the liquidation value of a 7-night category 1-5 hotel certificate is 45K? I have never seen any mention of that amount anyway on Marriott's website even after searching terms and conditions. I only found out about it after a MR rep cancelled one when all she needed to do was change the dates of an existing reservation. I would imagine there would be a lot of very surprised and upset customers if MPG decided to force a low points liquidation on unattached or changed partial hotel travel packages.

It's hard to believe that there is a large group of people who both obtained at least 270K MR points and couldn't find more value staying in a Marriott hotel than getting 45K back for a Cat 5 package. Since Marriott freely allows category changes and routinely extends certificates for at least one year, I doubt that there are a lot of people who would accept 45K,assuming that they even knew the option existed, rather than stay in a Marriott hotel for up to one week.

As I stated before, I am not saying the combined company couldn't do so. I just believe that a large scale devaluation with little or no formal notice would be a disaster from a customer relations point of view. I understand that there is a lot of online speculation, but that does not substitute for direct communication from MPG.

one of the things that i want to do is an aeroplan min rtw at the end of 2019, so in retrospect, i think that i will leave my amex as is

half my holdings are in SPG/MR so i think thats where i will focus my travel package usage

Did you try the method in post 4110 of this thread?

Yes, currently. It does get you past the idiotic computer quickly, but it apparently drops you into the same queue. I'm at 12 minutes and counting now.

Has Marriott issued any kind of public statement about the current phone support situation? Or are they taking the time-honored approach of not acknowledging that a major systemic problem exists at all?

different question:

if i have ALL the points for a travel package in my account, but want to transfer them to my wife so that we redeem the package under her account and can enjoy her status, is that possible?